Get an audit

Head to head · Guard injection · October 2026 research run

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails scores 68.4 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do guard injection.

Cisco AI Defense Inspection APICisco Systems, Inc. · HTTP API C61.3/100#429 of 841 NVIDIA NeMo GuardrailsNVIDIA · Agent framework B68.4/100#202 of 841

Which one, for what

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API C

Good for A company already buying Cisco security through Security Cloud Control that wants its own application to decide what to do with each verdict.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 80 against 75
  • Security & auth, 81 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 68

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No public price, free tier or trial for the Inspection API. Subscriptions are bought through sales and activated with a claim code

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails B

Good for Teams that want to compose several checks (their own, NVIDIA's and third-party APIs) behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 59
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Cisco AI Defense Inspection API loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Usage telemetry and a heartbeat every 10 minutes to NVIDIA by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCisco AI Defense Inspection APINVIDIA NeMo GuardrailsEdge
Reliability16%208075Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +5
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25969NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.26767even
Security & auth14%17.58162Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +19
Payments & pricing10%12.5060NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88080even
Transparency & trust7%8.87668Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +8
Negative events≤15-30
Total61.3 · C68.4 · B

Facts side by side

FactCisco AI Defense Inspection APINVIDIA NeMo Guardrails
KindHTTP APIAgent framework
VendorCisco Systems, Inc.NVIDIA
Hosted endpointhttps://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chatno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-232026-09-16
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno date given
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk7.2k stars, 101k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

Per-connection API keys with expiry, revocation and regeneration, published limits of 60,000 calls a minute, weekly dated release notes and a one-year retention statement suit companies already on Cisco Security Cloud Control. Access needs a subscription bought through sales, with no public price or trial for the API, and the developer changelog has one entry from February 2025.

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails

Apache-2.0, 7,200 stars and nine releases between 9 October 2025 and 16 September 2026. Usage telemetry and a heartbeat every 10 minutes to NVIDIA by default.

Before you call either

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

  1. Send the key in X-Cisco-AI-Defense-API-Key to POST /api/v1/inspect/chat on the regional host where the tenant was created. US, Europe and Asia Pacific hosts differ
  2. If the connection has a policy, enabled_rules in the request is ignored. Pass enabled_rules only for connections with no policy
  3. The API never blocks anything itself. Read is_safe and action in the response and enforce the decision in your own code
  4. On 429, wait and retry. The organisation has gone over one million tokens in parallel or 60,000 calls a minute
  5. Don't request the Toxicity rule. It was removed on 16 September 2026, and the Safety rules such as Hate Speech, Harassment and Profanity replace it

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails

  1. Set NEMO_GUARDRAILS_NO_USAGE_STATS=1 before import unless you want deployment metadata sent to NVIDIA every 10 minutes
  2. Use IORails for plain input and output checks. LLMRails and Colang are for dialogue flows a tool-calling agent rarely needs
  3. Pin nemoguardrails==0.24.1. 0.24.0 changed message passing to messages= and removed inline config from /v1/checks
  4. Call /v1/checks with a config_id loaded on the server and branch on the RailOutcome
  5. Put the server behind your own gateway. It has no auth or rate limiting

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails?

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails scores 68.4 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails without installing anything?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API has a hosted endpoint at https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat. No hosted endpoint is listed for NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails.

Are Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails open source?

No open-source release is listed for Cisco AI Defense Inspection API. NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report